Home and broadband in new house

malcolmffc

hi all,

I'm moving house next month and figured this would be a good time to sort out our home phone and broadband. Our priorities are:

- Fast, unlimited broadband (we are heavy users and do lots of web Skype calls)
- Cheapest line rental as possible,including caller ID as we rarely make domestic outgoing calls from it
- Cheap home phone calls to the USA (I know there's Skype but we've found it unreliable for VOIP-to-phone)

A complicating factor is that the current owner has VIrgin brosdbsnd and phone, which may be expensive to shift from.

Any suggestions on the best package for us? At our current property we have BT for the phone line (£12 mth using line rental saver and F&F international) and Be for broadband at £22/mth

Curr946

id say the virgin media deals are one of the best, followed by some offers by sky, but they limit the downloads and dont offer a great speed in some areas. Talktalk in also an option but their customer services is poor and you need a degree in Punjabi to successfully communicate with them. BT is expensive.

brewerdave

malcolmffc wrote: »

hi all,

I'm moving house next month and figured this would be a good time to sort out our home phone and broadband. Our priorities are:

- Fast, unlimited broadband (we are heavy users and do lots of web Skype calls)
- Cheapest line rental as possible,including caller ID as we rarely make domestic outgoing calls from it
- Cheap home phone calls to the USA (I know there's Skype but we've found it unreliable for VOIP-to-phone)

A complicating factor is that the current owner has VIrgin brosdbsnd and phone, which may be expensive to shift from.

Any suggestions on the best package for us? At our current property we have BT for the phone line (£12 mth using line rental saver and F&F international) and Be for broadband at £22/mth

1. It isn't a problem for YOU re Virgin - the previous owner will have to either move the service or cease/cancel it at THEIR expense as the account is personal ,not associated with the property.
2. Check Samknows for the new address to find out which suppliers are available via the BT network - if it is a Market 1 exchange then your options for "unlimited" broadband will be severely limited - and expensive!!:eek:
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker
3. Are you still "in contract" for either b/band or phone?

malcolmffc

The exchange is in GReater London, so all
LLU providers are available.

My point re: Virgin is that I will presumably have to pay a connection fee if I switch to another phone provider.

ktothema

malcolmffc wrote: »

The exchange is in GReater London, so all
LLU providers are available.

My point re: Virgin is that I will presumably have to pay a connection fee if I switch to another phone provider.

You won't have to pay virgin anything. If you went with another provider some don't charge or charge a relatively small fee to connect via a bt exchange, in return for a contract. I believe bt to be the most expensive of providers for connection fees.

If you're considering staying with virgin you'll have to wait until current tennants cancel their contracts.

malcolmffc

Wouldn't I (e.g.) have to pay BT £130 if I switched to them? I wouldnt call that small.

brewerdave

malcolmffc wrote: »

Wouldn't I (e.g.) have to pay BT £130 if I switched to them? I wouldnt call that small.

That's virtually the maximum that you would pay (unless major engineering works are needed!) . Other companies will have much lower connection charges- as suggested even free connection.
Because of your b/band requirements, you need to look carefully at all the LLU options available, then work out the annual costs including connection. There are so many packages available on these Market 3 exchanges, and many people end up tailoring a package to suit.
Pity us poor souls on Market 1 exchanges without all the competition:(

duchy

No-one else charges as much as BT for fitting a master socket. Look at other providers.

Sky will charge you a far smaller charge -plus there is a calls package of £5 a month for unlimited UK landlines and selected overseas countries which includes the US and Canada (landline and mobile). As you call the US I can't see any other package offering you better value as the BB rate is competitive too.